Playing Christmas Catch Up

Two days without a post.   Can you guess what I have been doing?  Probably the same things you are...  finishing my Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, mailing packages, sending cards, stressing out, going to a Financial Aid meeting for parents of high school seniors....  Ok, perhaps you didn't have to do that last one.  The week before Christmas they have a meeting to discuss all the costs of college we will be facing next year.   Really?  As if I didn't have enough to worry about.  Sigh.   Good thing I have needed to spend lots of time in my hobby room.  :)  It's my therapy!

I've been making cards, tags and boxes.  I've got my Christmas CDs playing while I work and I find peace while I am creating.  Here's a card I made inspired by Catherine & Mo's "A Very Trendy Holiday" card class.   For some reason I really loved using non-traditional colors.

This is one of those cards that I would like to make again.  I would fix the Raspberry tree on the right side and I would add some sequins.  This card was made in November and I didn't have sequins then.  I kept meaning to make another one and show you the improved version, but time is running out.  :)

Have I shown you my Christmas Deer card yet?  This was a fun card to create. I just sat in my hobby room and played.  If I've already shown it, I apologize, but I didn't want the Christmas season to go by and not show you this one. Remember, if you have a deer stamp they make great masculine cards.  ;)

My plan was to film a video showing you how I created the background added the ribbon, but Christmas snuck up on me and I've been fighting allergies for a couple of weeks.   Perhaps I can show you at a different time using Spring colors and images. For today I am adding this card to this week's Merry Monday challenge.

December comes with a few changes to the Design Team.  First, we have more members so each of us take turns getting a week off.  Today is my off day, so I am going to show you a sneak peek of last week's card.   Which brings me to the second change.  All of my Design Team submissions for StampNation will now be exclusive to StampNation.  Just one of the many perks of being a member is that you get exclusive content. Now the DT content is exclusive too.   It's as though I am a part of a special club.  ha-ha.

Not a member of SN yet?  It's only $9 a month and it is well worth the investment in my "me time".   If you are a member you can see my card along with the rest of the DT and member cards by clicking HERE.   If you would like to see this week's challenge click HERE.  My hope is to show you how I made the tag that is on this Christmas Carol card.  If all goes well I'll even have a video for you. :)

Have I made up for two days without posts?  :)  It's time for me to edit my video that I hope to share with you tomorrow, if I don't fall asleep first.  Above is a sneak peek for the video I will be editing.   I hope you enjoying the magic of this season and that you find a parking space near the entrance next time you head to the store.

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Mojo Monday on Sunday

Mojo Monday is celebrating their 300th sketch challenge this week and today is the last day to enter it. If you have been following my blog for any length of time then you know I love sketches, and Mojo Monday is one of my favorites.  I just had to be a part of their 300th challenge, so you get a double post from me today.  :)

I used my new Chalk Talk stamp set and stamp it twice using Early Espresso Ink onto Very Vanilla cardstock.  The first tag was cut out using the Chalk Talk Framelits.  On the second card I used a sponge and sponge over the banner with Crisp Cantaloupe ink, then cut out just the banner using my paper snips.  This is popped up using dimensionals.  The circle was also stamped with Early Espresso ink.  This time I stamped it onto Crisp Cantaloupe cardstock using the Everything Eleanor stamp set.

This card was an experiment from start to finish.  I tried so many combinations for the stamped pieces you see.  There were several colors of ink and embossing powder I tried.  I'm happy with the end results.  Hopefully it will inspire you to go play with one of your new stamp set and pair it with one of your old.

Happy 300th Mojo Monday!  Here is to 300 more weeks of inspiration.  <3

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Stampin' UP! Products Used:
Paper: Soho Subway DSP, Botanical Garden DSP (retired), Crisp Cantaloupe, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla
Ink: Early Espresso, Crisp Cantaloupe
Stamps: Everything Eleanor, Chalk Talk
Misc: Chalk Talk Framelits, Scallop Circle Punch, Circle Punch, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Paper Snips

Forever & Always

I have a thing for flourishes and hearts.  What could be better than combining the two?  I made this for my honey for Valentine's Day, but I think it would be a lovely Wedding card or Bridal Shower card too.

First I stamped the flourish from Everything Eleanor, then I stamped the sentiment, Forever & Always from Loving Thoughts.

Then came the fun part, the hearts.  I used the small heart punch and punched out some cardstock and designer series paper.  I also stamped some of the stamps from Hearts A Flutter and punched them out using the same small heart punch.  All the hearts were adhered using the 2 way glue pen. 

To add a bit of texture to some of the hearts I used Dazzling Details, on other hearts I used Crystal Effects and the rest I left alone. 

Creative Blessings,
Heather North




DSP Patterns Stack - Subtles



Small Heart Punch



Everything Eleanor



Hearts A Flutter




Dazzling Details



Scrapbook Sunday ~ Background Stamping

I still remember my first SU party.  I asked the demonstrator if we could use stamps in our scrapbooking and she didn't really know.  If she had been a scrapbooker and could show me how to combine stamping and scrapbooking I probably would have signed up with her years ago. 

 

 

 

 

On this page I finally figured out how to combine the two.  Admittedly I need some work.  This page would have looked so much better if I had done the stamping first instead of adhering it to my background page and trying to stamp it in my book.   Live and learn.

 

 

 

What I do like is how the background stamp filled in the "empty" space around this picture and balanced the page for me.  Yes, you can combine stamping and scrapbooking.  Hopefully I will be able to teach myself more, or finally be able to find somebody else to show me how.  If not, you will see me grow if you follow my blog.  Everyone has to start somewhere, right?

 

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

 



Everything Eleanor




Chocolate Chip Classic Ink
(or was it Soft Suede, maybe it was Early Espresso...I can't remember.  :p)

 



Clear Block F
Clear Block E will work in a pinch



 

 



Happy Halloween

Last night Scott and the kids carved and decorated pumpkins.   I was making Scott some Chocolate Chip Cookies for his birthday and completely forgot to take any pictures.  Oops.   Perhaps I will remember to take pictures of the finished pumpkins today.

Have you seen Stampin' UP!'s stamp set called Button Buddies?  If not here it is:

Button Buddies

Aren't they cute?  I wanted to make this card with the pumpkin, but I don't have this stamp set.  :(  Instead I used what I had and I like what I came up with. 

If you saw yesterday's post then you might recognize the Mojo Monday sketch I used again.  What can I say?  I'm a sucker for good sketches, and this square one just seemed to fit. 

There are a few things I changed though, including the orientation of the card.  Instead of opening at the bottom this card opens at the side. The inside is decorated too.

I made my own background paper by stamping the swirl from Everything Eleanor in Soft Suede ink, stamping off on some scratch paper first.  I did the same for the little boo tag.  The front panel is embossed and sponged.  Actually all the pieces ended up getting sponged. 

This was a quick, fun card to make and I've already begun some modifications to make it perfect for Thanksgiving.  (or a fall thank you card)

Come back later today to see my "scary" Halloween post of my craft room.  The before pictures are pretty spooky to me.  LOL

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Card Recipe:  (all items SU unless otherwise noted)

Stamps: Everything Eleanor, Tiny Tags, Seasonal Sayings
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Soft Suede, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi
Ink: Soft Suede
Misc.: Dots Embossing Folder (non SU), Glimmer Brads, Scallop Square Duo Die, Bird Punch. Jewelry Tag Punch









 

 







Friday Bliss

I'm happy to report that the hobby room clean-up is almost complete.  Boy am I going to have fun messing it up next week!   Part of the cleanup was going through all my old papers and stamps and decided which items needed to be removed from my room and sent on to bless others.  The two retired stamp sets used on this card did not make it.  :)  They're staying put.

My all time favorite stamp set is Bliss.  I think it was a SAB stamp set a couple of years ago when I first started using Stampin' UP again.  The other stamp set is Vintage Vogue.  Both are so soft and feminine.  In my scrapbooking I have mostly masculine pages since both my kids are boys.  That is one of the reasons I so enjoy stamping.  I can be girly.  :)

The paper I used was a metallic silver paper.  It was in my "stash" and not SU.  If you wanted to make this card you could try it with the SU silver paper.  I used Black Staz-On ink to stamp it then dry embossed it with my dots embossing folder. 

The scallop circle piece was from the Everything Eleanor stamp set.  I used versamark ink and silver embossing powder.  It's so pretty.

This card was not easy to photograph, so you'll have to trust me on how pretty it is in person.  Or, if you don't trust me, try this card out yourself using your favorite stamp set(s). 

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

P.S.  My before pictures of my room are soooooooooo scary that I think I'll save them for a Halloween post.  LOL  Here is a picture of how the room looks this morning.  I need to go through a few more piles and then go shopping for some organizers to better fit my space, but it looks oh so much better! 

For now I am going to use the bottom corner shelf to display my favorite cards.  4 out of 5 of the cards on there now use Bliss and/or Vintage Vogue.

 Card Recipe:
Stamps: Everything Eleanor, Bliss, Vintage Vogue
Ink: Black Staz-On, Versamark
Paper: Basic Black, Perfect Plum, Silver Metallic (non-SU)
Misc.: Perfect Plum Taffeta Ribbon, Basic Black 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon, Various Punches, Dots Embossing Folder, Basic Rhinestones



Everything Eleanor



1/8" Basic Black Taffeta Ribbon




3/8" Pefect Plum Taffeta Ribbon




Various Punches



Office Kindness ~TSOT#80

Our card-a-day blog group has a new challenge this week.  The challenge is to make a card with an office theme.  When I think of office I think of secretaries, paper, mail, phones, typewriters, computers, keys (don't know why), desks, etc.

I really need a card for someone at work so I decided to jump back into making cards with this challenge.  I thought about making a card similar to the one in this post clicky, but when I pulled out the Fan Fair paper I found this postcard image that I thought would be fun to play with.

Once I had the main image I looked through my pile of sketches.  I've been printing them out the past couple of weeks, but haven't had much creative time.  The sketch from Try Stampin' On Tuesday was PERFECT!  I really like this sketch, and I'm thinking about using it to create a scrapbooking page. 

The swirls in the background are what really captured me about this sketch.  It's hard to see with my focal image on there, so I took a picture before adhering it.  If I use this sketch again for a card I will use a smaller image.  The swirls are from the Everything Eleanor stamp set.

As for the details, I stamped the sentiment from the stamp set Blooming with Kindness.   The ribbon is Island Indigo Ruffled Ribbon and the pearls are from the Basic Pearls set.

For the inside I took another image from the Fan Fair DSP and stamped Thank You, then cut it out.   I wanted the paper I stamped on to match the paper on the front of the card and this worked very well.

I'm giving this to someone at work to thank them for always going above and beyond.  The best part is it really could be given to a man or a women.  I would probably switch out the pearls for brads if I was giving this to a man though.

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Card Recipe of SU products used:

Paper: Fan Fair, Everyday Enchantment (retired), Very Vanilla, Island Indigo
Stamps: Everything Eleanor, Blooming With Kindness
Ink: Basic Grey
Misc. Basic Pearls, Island Indigo Ruffled Ribbon

Thanks, Friend

My boys went to play with friends today, and I was able to spend an hour in the hobby room.  Here is what I came up with.  :)  I was even able to clean up the mess I made.  Always a plus.  My mojo is definitely coming back.

If you are wondering about the colors, I got them from the color challenge at CR84FN.  I like the combo a lot.  Though I had to use a non-SU purple.  It is an old piece of  CM cardstock.

The sketch is from this week's Retro Sketches. 



I took some liberty with the size.  It is a 4 1/4 square card.  I also left off the swirly bit.  I was going to add it but couldn't decide which color to use.  

Instead I added a little detail in the top corner. :) Isn't that teeny tiny brad cute?  I was going to add a rhinestone, but I was curious to see just how small my new brads are. 

 It feels good to be crafting again.  I have a stack of challenges printed out and a list of cards I need to make.  All I need are time, energy and an air conditioner in the garage.  :)

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Paper: Summer Smooches, Island Indigo CS, Whisper White CS, Wild Wasabi CS, CM Purple
Ink: Versamark, Wild Wasabi, Island Indigo, Black
Stamps: Everything Eleanor, Lovely Labels, Mixed Medley (Hostess)
Misc. Little Labels Punch Pack, Modern Label Punch, Paper Doily Die, Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch

Everything Eleanor



Paper Doily Sizzlit

Lovely Little Labels

Mixed Medley (Hostess)